Tag: dust

Super Air Knife Used in Mining Application

Published on by Lee EvansLeave a comment

If you were to look at a graphical representation of the exports from some countries (such as Chile), copper, copper alloys, and other metals would dominate over 50% of the graph.  In order to get all of those metals exported out of the country, they first have to be mined and, in many cases, separated from other, undesirable items, such as rocks or dust.  And, in order to separate the materials, many end users place the products on a conveyor and blow off what isn’t wanted.

We receive calls and emails at EXAIR regularly for these types of applications.  Recently, I received one such email about an application in need of dust and dirt removal from a conveyor during a mining operation.  The conveyor belt had become overrun with dirt and debris that couldn’t be removed by conventional means.  So, the end user sought an alternative, and permanent solution.

It was at this point that the Super Air Knife was considered, and after measuring the width of the conveyor we realized a stock model 110018 would work well.  Following installation of the Super Air Knife, the dust and dirt was removed to within an acceptable level, and the end user sent me the pics below.

SAK in belt blow off 1
Model 110018 mounted above a conveyor
SAK in belt blow off 2
After the 110018 Super Air Knife

If you have an application that may benefit from an EXAIR solution, contact one of our Application Engineers.

Lee Evans
Application Engineer
LeeEvans@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_LE

Heavy Duty HEPA Vac Reduces Dust When Vacuuming

Published on by Lee EvansLeave a comment
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EXAIR Heavy Duty HEPA Vacuum Systems

When selecting the proper EXAIR vacuum system for an application, several details are considered by our Application Engineers.  For example:

Does the vacuum need to vacuum liquids or solids?

If the need is to vacuum solid material, what is the approximate size of the material pieces?

How quickly does the material need to be vacuumed?

What is the compressed air supply available?

Is dust a major concern?

The last question becomes more relevant with finer material, especially dust or small dirt particles.  Many applications have a need for dust control and need a vacuum system capable of maintaining low dust levels.

The EXAIR Heavy Duty HEPA Vac was designed for this exact purpose.  With a HEPA filter that is tested in strict accordance to IEST-RP-CC-007 standards to provide a minimum of 99.97% filtration at the 0.3 micron level, the Heavy Duty HEPA Vac can provide an effective and highly efficient vacuuming method using only compressed air.

Fine Powder Hopper 2
Hopper used for fine powder collection

For example, in the fine dust collection hopper shown above, the hopper undergoes regular cleaning and maintenance which includes a thorough cleaning to remove any fine dust remaining in the hopper. This powder has a tendency to permeate the filtration used in most vacuums, and electrically powered units have continuously failed.

The Heavy Duty HEPA Vac is a perfect fit for this application need as it can provide adequate filtration, and it has no moving parts to wear out.

If you have a dusty or difficult vacuum application in need of a sustainable vacuum system, contact an EXAIR Application Engineer to discuss the Heavy Duty HEPA Vac.

Lee Evans
Application Engineer
LeeEvans@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_LE

Engineered Solutions Are Cost Effective

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

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One of the easiest ways to solve a blow off application is to install an open pipe or tube; it’s generally quick and available. They are easy to make, mainly you just need some pipe, maybe a hacksaw and hammer, and a way to hook them up to your compressed air system.  They will provide a good amount of force but at the cost of safety, noise level, and air consumption. That’s right: it will cost you in SAFETY, NOISE EXPOSURE and COMPRESSED AIR CONSUMPTION. I’m going to go out on a limb here (not really) and wager there are a number of folks in any organization unwilling to pay those costs – if you are willing, you may want to reconsider.

I have been to many manufacturing facilities where they have used copper line to bend into a tight space and then pump 85 psi into the pipe in order to try and blow a piece of lint out of a roller or to keep trim from getting caught in a pulley system.  In some cases I have seen 3/8″ ID pipe to keep dust and lint out of a pulley.

This is not needed at all.   The estimated flow through a 3/8″ ID tube that is around 3′ long would be roughly 109 SCFM when powered at 85 psig.   All to keep dust off and loose fiber out of a certain area.  The reason they plumbed this large of a piece of tubing into the area was simple, it’s what they had and it worked great (words from the maintenance worker). For additional reference, our 91 SCFM air nozzle produces 4.5 pounds of force which seems a bit of overkill when you can blow dust away with your breath.

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In one instance I looked over the material and scrap they were trying to keep from getting to the outer workings of the machine I made the recommendation for them to utilize a model 1100SSW, –  a 1/4 NPT Stainless Steel Super Air Nozzle w/ Swivel Fitting.   This would give them flexibility to target the right area through the swivel and require them to change the existing tubing out to a schedule 40 threaded pipe, or use a compression style fitting.

By replacing the single nozzle, the customer was able to reduce compressed air consumption in just this single blow off point from 109 SCFM at 85 psig to 14 SCFM at 80 psig inlet pressure.  This single replacement equates to saving 95 SCFM, or $11.40 per 8 hour shift that the blowoff is operated.   If the customer operated this blowoff 24 hours a day it would take a mere 4 days to pay the unit back in air savings.

The above savings do not include the benefit of being able to reduce the overall operating pressure of the compressed air system feeding this application to 80 psig, instead of 85 psig. In case you weren’t aware, if you lower the pressure value where your compressor shuts off, say from 85 psig to 80 psig, it will save an estimated 2.5% of drive energy for their air compressor.   Depending on the type and size of the compressor this could amount to a substantial savings.  This system pressure reduction will also lower the operating pressure of any leaks that may be within the system which will also be another amount of savings.  All of this is from simply replacing open pipe with an engineered nozzle.

This was just one area where the quick and easy way turned out to be the costly and dangerous path.  The best part about our engineered solution is they are all in stock, ready to ship same day.  This means you can find the problem today, have a solution waiting to be installed tomorrow.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

Outside Your Comfort Zone?

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

Over the past several months I have found myself more and more outside of my comfort zone throughout the day.  This feeling has been declining over the past few months, however, as the situations which cause discomfort seem to come up more and more every day so my comfort zone is constantly expanding. I like comfort zones, but also understand that being outside of them helps me to learn and gain new experience. I bring this up because I had a customer come in yesterday so they could be shown a demonstration of an EXAIR Super Air Knife.

Now, customers coming in is not a problem at all, I spoke with him last week and we discussed the application.  This time, it was outside of his comfort zone so he wanted to come in.  Well, when I got the call I had a visitor I grabbed a single business card and walk out to find that there were four gentlemen waiting to see me, not just one.  Still, not a problem. I showed them to our fully stocked demo room and we proceeded to discuss their application.  They were hoping to make the environment their employees work in a little cleaner.  They had new down draft work benches which had three sides on it.

The problem the team was having is that all their operators were using hand-held grinders to deburr parts as they were manufactured.   The downdraft table was added to help prevent the dust and debris from getting all over the operators, however it wasn’t working good enough.  So they started looking and found EXAIR Super Air Knives.  They didn’t believe that a Super Air Knife would move enough air and still be quiet enough to have an operator sitting at the station, so they drove down to our facility and I showed them all the benefits that a Super Air Knife has.  This was all based off a 6″ Aluminum Super Air Knife I had handy.  I then swapped the stock .002″ thick shim out with a .001″ thick shim.  They were amazed at how quiet the Super Air Knife was (with either shim) and how the flow of air was enough to disturb and direct dust but not over powering and blowing parts off the table. LSAN I could definitely see that they were impressed by the simplicity of working with the Super Air Knife and the performance it achieved. But alas, they were still trying to figure out how a 48″ would work, so I went straight out and got a 110048 off the shelf and hooked it up for them.  That was all that they needed in order to really get the wheels in their heads spinning into overdrive.   They all left with my contact information and catalogs in tow but I didn’t hear them stop talking about the possibilities until they were in the car.

The fact of the matter is that they were outside of their comfort zone and had no concept of how you could make compressed air blow in a laminar sheet to help contain dust in a down draft work bench.  Once they saw how easy the Super Air Knife was to hook up and mount they were instantly back into their comfort zone of making their employees happy and safe. If you have some applications using compressed air and you are well out of your zone, contact us.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
 @EXAIR_BF